PAUL RANTS

Posted by Paul at January 27th, 2008

Can we please stop using the term “Honor Killing” ? There is nothing honorable about murdering your children because you’re a religious fanatic. If they want to use this backwards term in Egypt, Syria, or Saudi Arabia, fine, but this is the USA. A Muslim man in Texas couldn’t handle his teenage daughters dating non-Muslims. This “man”, this “father”, brought his family here from the Middle East, presumably to benefit from the freedoms we enjoy. If he chose to murder his daughters than he did so because he’s an insecure, emasculated control freak. He is not pious, he is not righteous, and he is most certainly not honorable.

Posted by Paul at January 26th, 2008

According to CNN, black women use little more than their race and gender to decide which Democrat to vote for. After all, they are black and they are women, right..? OK, so I’m a white guy. Should I vote for Senator Clinton because she’s white, or Senator Obama because he’s a man? I guess I should vote for John Edwards because he’s both. This comment on the CNN website by someone named Tiffany put it best:

Duh, I’m a black woman and here I am at the voting booth. Duh, since I’m illiterate I’ll pull down the lever for someone. Hm… Well, he black so I may vote for him… oh wait she a woman I may vote for her… What Ise gon’ do? Oh lordy!

This reminds me of when Wolf Blitzer (also of CNN) referred to the people caught in the Katrina flood as “so poor and so black”.

Posted by Paul at January 24th, 2008

The former president wags his finger at the media for not anointing his wife the presumptive nominee. I can’t believe I voted for this guy. Hey Bill, how about uniting the party? Not a chance. He’s become the Obama disser-in-chief. Maybe Hillary would make a decent president, I don’t know. But her husband has set a new low for what a former president will do to get a relative elected. Of course, unlike Bush senior, who seems beyond dignified in comparison, Bill Clinton would actually move back in to the president’s bedroom. Well, Bill had his time. Did some good things, rode the internet boom like a real champ, ignored Rwanda, had a 73% approval rating and got impeached. Next.

My prediction that Rudy Giuliani was toast last summer seems to have come true; not so for John McCain. He’s Baaack! Mitt Romney can outspend him 100 times over, but McCain has that experienced old guy vibe. From toast to the feuding Democrat’s worst nightmare, he’s quietly risen from the ashes. But, reality check: his willingness to prolong the Iraq occupation indefinitely won’t play with most voters. Just show the video of him walking in Baghdad surrounded by troops and helicopters, declaring it safe. As he tries to play the fear card against the Democratic nominee. Yeah, that’ll work. People are more scared of the economy than terrorism at this point.

(Expect al Qaeda to rear it’s head in November.)

Posted by Paul at January 12th, 2008

I truly hope that people will learn from my mistakes.

– Marion Jones

I really don’t want to pick on disgraced track star Marion Jones. She’s seems to feel bad about what she did and will pay dearly. Others have done worse than take steroids and lie about it (or done the same thing). But I’m sorry, I have a problem with the word mistake. It’s a word that people who get caught doing wrong use way too often these days. Oops — made a mistake!

mis·take 1: transitive verb 1: to blunder in the choice of <mistook her way in the dark> 2a: to misunderstand the meaning or intention of : misinterpret <don’t mistake me, I mean exactly what I said> b: to make a wrong judgment of the character or ability of 3: to identify wrongly : confuse with another < I mistook him for his brother>

2: noun : a wrong action or statement proceeding from faulty judgment, inadequate knowledge, or inattention

– Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Did Marion Jones ‘blunder’ or ‘misinterpret’? ‘Identify wrongly’ or ‘confuse with another’? Maybe she made a ‘wrong judgment of the character or ability of’…. what exactly? The character of steroids in an athletes’ bloodstream? Her ability to get away with it? How about ‘faulty judgment’? I’ll say. But where’s the ‘inadequate knowledge’ or ‘inattention’? If her judgment was faulty, then why? Was she mentally impaired in some way? No, these were calculated decisions. She decided to inject herself with steroids before her appearance in the 2000 Olympics and then decided to lie about it to a grand jury, knowing full well she was breaking the rules and the law. No, people won’t learn from Marion Jones’ mistakes. Maybe from her lies and deceptions.

Posted by Paul at January 7th, 2008

Ah yes, the unknown: either get placed on a jury for a first degree murder trial or don’t get placed on a jury for a first degree murder trial. Such sweet, sweet uncertainty. It’s a hell of a lot more intriguing than going to my job. Simultaneously I sort of want to be chosen and emphatically do not want to be chosen. If the defendant is found guilty we will have to decide between life without parole and death. Nice, huh? They made us each fill out a long questionnaire the first day on the jury panel. I’m a middle aged married homeowner with a boring job. Crime, bad. Death penalty, bad. For the love of God please don’t choose me. Or whatever, choose me. What the hell else do I have going on? Then today we all arrive again to be interviewed and discover our fates (or at least if we will decide someone else’s). For an hour we wait in the hallway outside the courtroom. Finally they file all 85 of us in and we sit down. The judge announces that the defense attorney “isn’t feeling well today” and we have to come back tomorrow. I’m learning that the jury panel is at the bottom of the courtroom hierarchy. A heads up would have been nice. The unknown is becoming a real drag. But tomorrow, my fate. Or so I’m told.

UPDATE: Surprise, another postponement, this time for one week (no heads up of course). Someone involved with the trial is seriously ill, apparently. The judge hinted at our dismissal if we don’t start jury selection next week. All this hurry up and wait reminds me of another murder case. More later.

UPDATE II: JURY PANEL DISMISSED. Trial postponed due to illness. Can you say anti-climactic? And so ends the tribulations of Paul the reluctant juror.

Posted by Paul at January 4th, 2008

Mike Huckabee is a baptist minister and former governor of Arkansas who likes to play up his Christian credentials. He also plays the bass guitar, lost over 100 pounds, and thinks Earth is six thousand years old. His campaign isn’t as well financed as his top rivals, but his plain spoken style has made him a hit with middle class Republicans in Iowa. He will have to contend with the likes of John McCain and Rudy Giuliani in the coming primaries, but seems to have neutralized his main opponent, soulless ken doll Mitt Romney. Still, without the Republican money machine behind him, it’s up in the air whether Huckabee will be around in November.

Barack Obama is a Senator from Illinois and former attorney. His campaign is well financed, mostly by small donors. More of an orator than a plain speaker, he’s very effective at bringing people together from across the political spectrum. He’s definitely a more formidable opponent in the Democratic primary than Huckabee is for the Republicans. He’s also the first black person in history to become a serious contender for the White House, having just won the state of Iowa, which is 97% white. Oh yes, and with John Edwards’ second place finish, 68% of Iowa Democrats voted against Hillary Clinton.

Heavily focus-grouped candidates Clinton and Romney will have a tough time convincing people that they are the best choices this year. Not so for these two. Change is afoot.

UPDATE: Obama pulls 12 points ahead of Clinton in New Hampshire poll

UPDATE II: Uh, so much for polls..! But the race is on.